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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it Vietnam

Find all functions f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} such that
f(x)f(y)=f(xy1)+xf(y)+yf(x),x,yR. f(x)f(y) = f(xy - 1) + x f(y) + y f(x), \quad \forall x, y \in \mathbb{R}.

Solution

By letting y=0y = 0 in (1), we have f(x)f(0)=f(1)+xf(0)f(x) \cdot f(0) = f(-1) + x f(0).
We distinguish two cases regarding the value of f(0)f(0).

Case 1. f(0)0f(0) \neq 0 implies f(x)=x+cf(x) = x + c for all xRx \in \mathbb{R} with cc is constant, which is not a solution.

Case 2. f(0)=0f(0) = 0 implies f(1)=0f(-1) = 0.
By plugging x=y=1x = y = 1 into (1), we get f(1)2=2f(1)f(1)^2 = 2 f(1), so f(1)=0f(1) = 0 or f(1)=2f(1) = 2. From (1), the substitution y=1y = -1 yields
f(y1)=f(y),yR.(2) f(-y - 1) = f(y), \forall y \in \mathbb{R}. \quad (2)
Replacing yy by y1-y - 1 in (1), we get
f(x)f(y1)=f(x(y+1)1)+xf(y1)(y+1)f(x). f(x) f(-y - 1) = f(-x(y + 1) - 1) + x f(-y - 1) - (y + 1) f(x).
Thus, it follows from (2)
f(xy1)+yf(x)=f(xy+x)(y+1)f(x),x,yR.(3) f(xy - 1) + y f(x) = f(xy + x) - (y + 1) f(x), \forall x, y \in \mathbb{R}. \quad (3)
Let x1x \neq -1, replacing xx by x+1x + 1 and yy by 1x+1\frac{1}{x+1} in (3), we have
f(x1)=x1x+1f(x),x1. f(x - 1) = \frac{x - 1}{x + 1} f(x), \forall x \neq -1.
On the other hand, we set y=1y = 1 in (1) and get
f(x)f(1)=f(x1)+xf(1)+f(x)=x1x+1f(x)+xf(1)+f(x),x1.(4) \begin{aligned} f(x) \cdot f(1) &= f(x - 1) + x \cdot f(1) + f(x) \\ &= \frac{x - 1}{x + 1} \cdot f(x) + x \cdot f(1) + f(x), \forall x \neq -1. \end{aligned} \quad (4)
* If f(1)=0f(1) = 0 then f=0f = 0 because (4) and f(1)=0f(-1) = 0.
* If f(1)=2f(1) = 2 then f(x)=x(x+1)f(x) = x(x + 1) because (4) and f(1)=0f(-1) = 0.

It is easy to see that f(x)0f(x) \equiv 0 and f(x)=x(x+1)f(x) = x(x+1) satisfied (1). \square

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